Technically you missed the deadline by 1 minute, but since I'm perfectly willing to believe you were typing before that - and there's no way you gained any information from FP3 - I think we'll let that one slide. There's a precedent for near misses.

Technically you missed the deadline by 1 minute, but since I'm perfectly willing to believe you were typing before that - and there's no way you gained any information from FP3 - I think we'll let that one slide. There's a precedent for near misses.

It finally happened. No, not Nico Rosberg winning the world championship - that happened too, but something much more important, more eagerly anticipated, happened in Abu Dhabi. Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel all appeared on the podium, and in that order. After twenty races without a sighting, it seemed as though the dominant trio from 2015 would in fact never appear on the podium. But confidence was still high among certain believers, and three entrants did in fact fully cash in on the long-awaited appearance of this phenomenon: congratulations to cm97, Exediron and mcdo for correctly filling in the podium and finishing the year in style!

... particularly cm97 and Exediron, who actually got their picks in on time

Nearly everyone predicted Hamilton to win and Rosberg to follow him home in second, so scoring was both very high and very flat. The effect is that relatively few positional changes occurred, although due to the generally high scoring, the consequences were exaggerated for those who failed to post a strong result.

At the end of the 2016 season of CarlPotter's Top Three Championship, the standings of the Individual Championship are as follows:

robins13 wins the individual championship with a record score of 111, having led for almost the entire season and rarely appearing in any real danger of losing the title; Black_Flag_11 finishes as runner-up, hanging on to second place by a healthy 6-point margin. The singles' title remained out of reach, but there will be consolation later in the form of other achievements.

The battle for 3rd place was won by Exediron by the narrowest of margins - having achieved exactly the result he needed to tie Herb on points, it came down to a count-back, with the decisive tiebreaker being settled by the perfect podium Exediron scored this round. A perfect podium also propels mcdo up the standings, although only a single place due to the tight nature of scoring this round - with the vast majority of contestants scoring 8 places, a perfect podium in this round was worth statistically the least of any round in the season.

Next in line is cm97, also benefiting from a perfect podium to leap from 9th to 6th, overtaking Mayhem on count-back in the process by virtue of the higher number of wins. Icemanjee1 and Remmirath are next, their own long-running tie still broken by perfect podiums, as it was before - neither scored one this round, so Icemanjee1 retains the lead in that battle. Rounding out the final place in the top ten is Jenson's Understeer, who many be regretting the assumption that with nothing to lose, not putting Rosberg on the podium was a good idea.

The next block of four all hold station in their relative positions, with TypingChicane fortunate for the sizable buffer below the group, being one of the lowest scorers in this round. After them, Jezza13 jumps the absent Saz to claim 15th place on the season, while Ruste13 escapes last place by a single point despite phoning in his performance (quite literally) for the latter part of the season. Among those he jumps is his teammate, who must be wondering where things went so wrong after starting the season in dominant fashion and leading the championship before robins13 took over. The two-time champion GPG is last of all those still classified, having not submitted a prediction since Japan.

Black_Flag_11's team takes the title by 4 points over their nearest challengers - although their victory will inevitably be shadowed in the eyes of some who will say they were only able to win because of bad luck on the part of Fire & Ice, they are still the champions of 2016, and nothing can take that away.

Behind them, Multi21 and McLotus remain inseparable in points after all this time, their tie for 2nd place broken only by the secondary tiebreaker of most wins. With two more wins on the season, Multi21 take 2nd position, equaling their highest finish in the competition, back in 2014.

The fall doesn't end here for Fire & Ice - Understeer = Mayhem, much hyped ahead of the season as a potential super-team, claim 4th position by a single point over the tumbling leaders, with robins13's squad in 5th.

In 6th place, finishing their first campaign in impressive style, Crash & Learn come home as the highest placed of the rookie teams, beating out the free-falling 2015 champions, No Limit Excedrin Racing. The former champions manage to stay ahead of Lucky 13 Racing, the second rookie team, by virtue of a very strong late season form by their sole remaining driver.

And in last place, Redline GP will be left ruing a season that could have been so much more, never able to get scoring from both of their drivers at the same point in the season. They will be one of several teams happy to put this season behind themselves and look towards the future. The promise of 2017 is strong, with the hope for more than two drivers contending for the top spots on the podium; it will be a new era, and the established order may well be shaken to the core. Who can say what team will be there to claim glory in the new formula?

Well, not going for a Hamilton/Rosberg 1-2 cost me three points and two positions overall, but quite frankly finishing 8th or 10th doesn't really matter. Bit miffed to have missed out on a Hamilton/Rosberg/Vettel PP though!

We went into part three of the Knockout Cup with robins13 hoping to complete a league-and-cup double, but knowing that Black_Flag_11 held the advantage after the first two races of the final. At the very least, robins13 had to outscore Black_Flag_11, but with both opting for a Hamilton-Rosberg 1-2, robins13 needed Max Verstappen to finish on the third step of the podium. For a long time it looked like that could happen, then Ferrari put Seb Vettel on the super-softs and the German charged back through the top six, ultimately overtaking the young Dutchman and ensuring that our inaugural Knockout Cup winner is... Black_Flag_11!

Nice work Lotus49, we got damn close in the end. I'm going to blame the Mexico podium shenanigans for robbing us

Thanks Exediron, I always enjoy the write-ups after every race

Holy hell, I didn't realise we even came that close!. Hell of a job mate on the perfect podium and season on the whole, that's what got us in the top 3 . (Oh and congrats on getting a trophy in the PickTen too, great finish and so nearly the double)

Giving your engine supplier another chance after last years disappearing act paid off(ish) in the end. #BelieveinMcLotus

Huge thanks to Exediron for running the comp and putting in all the hard work, it's much appreciated.

Same to Jenson's Understeer for running the KO cup too, great fun and big thanks

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Congratulations to Robins13 on a truly dominant season and mind your manors on a hard fought championship victory. To icemanjee1, thanks for another solid season. Our day will come soon.And finally to Exeridon and Jensons Understeer, thanks for putting together another fun and interesting season.